Man wounded in stabbing near Magnificent Mile

A man was wounded in a stabbing in front of a North Michigan Avenue hotel this evening, authorities said, and witnesses reported a person was taken into custody nearby.

As of about 8:30 p.m. crime scene tape surrounded the entrance to the Westin Hotel on Delaware Street and Michigan Avenue with patches of blood visible on the pavement, and two police cars blocked the street.

Olivia Morrow, 18, said she and her friend were returning to the hotel around 8 p.m. to meet their parents when they saw police on the scene.

Morrow said shortly after that she saw about five hotel officials running out of the building toward the stairs leading to the Hancock Tower and neighboring The Cheesecake Factory Restaurant.

“They had radios and phones in their hands, saying that (the attacker) was last seen running down the stairs,” Morrow said.

Genevieve Waldron of Michigan City, Ind., was among the crowd waiting for a table outside when she and her mother saw dozens of officers sprinting toward the restaurant from every direction.

“They were obviously looking for somebody and we were trying to stay out of the way,” Waldron said.

Meanwhile, Morrow said she saw a male victim lying on the ground surrounded by a half dozen people. He was taken away in an ambulance, Morrow said.

A few minutes later, two officers came back up the stairs, flanking a young man who was handcuffed, and loaded him into the back of a marked car.

A Chicago Fire Department ambulance responded to a call of a person stabbed at 909 North Michigan Avenue about 8 p.m. and took one person in serious condition to Northwestern Memorial Hospital, said Chicago Fire Department spokesman Kevin MacGregor.

Police were called to the scene because of report a man was stabbed in the head about that time, said Chicago Police News Affairs Officer Veejay Zala.

Neither The Cheesecake Factory nor the hotel were evacuated, as guests on the south-facing side of the building peered out of the windows to get a view of the scene. There appeared to be little commotion at the restaurant, where diners poured out into the hallways waiting for a table.